PARKER and Fiona soon reached the shoreline of the loch and pulled themselves out onto dry land. They lifted the inflatable raft out as well to make sure it didn't float away.

"Now what do we do?" Fiona asked.

"We need to get someone to come h'and 'elp us," said Parker.

Fiona reached into her coat pocket. "Oh…no…" she groaned. "I've lost my phone!"

"Must 'ave fallen h'out aboard the plane?" Parker said. He thought for a moment whilst a distressed Fiona ran her fingers through her hair. Then he had an idea. "Can you build a fire?" he asked.

Fiona looked at him. "Er, sure," she said. "I've been camping with my Dad many times."

They set to work, finding twigs, branches, leaves, anything that would burn and began to make a pyramid out of it on a small open area of ground. It was a small chance they'd be found in such an open and remote area, but anything was worth a try.

"Do you really think anyone will come looking for us?" asked Fiona.

"When H'Air Traffic Control realises there's no contact with the plane, they'll know something 'as gone wrong," Parker said. "They'll send out a search party. We need to make sure they can spot h'us."

Fiona nodded and continued her search for foliage.

"I'm just gonna h'answer a call of nature," Parker said as he headed off the other way. "Don't stray too far."

"Same with you," said Fiona.

Parker disappeared into the trees and made sure he was well out of Fiona's sight before pulling up his sleeve to check his watch. To his relief it was still working, but then he hadn't much reason to doubt that as it was one specifically made by Brains. "I 'ope you get this, Master John," He pushed a button.

Thunderbird 5 wasn't usually a hive of activity, but today was a big exception. Now that the repairs to Thunderbird 3 had been completed, it had been launched to deliver equipment to the Space-Station in order to repair the fault with the Space-Elevator. John, who was fully recovered as well, had flown the spaceship up along with Scott and Brains to join Alan.

"Boy, am I glad to see you all?" Alan remarked once the others had joined him inside. "These past couple of weeks have felt like months! How do you do it, John?"

John gave a chuckle. "Took me ages to get used to it originally," he said. "But a few months and I'm sure you'd get the hang of it, Alan."

Alan laughed too. "You can have it," he said. "I'll stick to Thunderbird 3."

"Well you might not have a choice," said Scott. "Dad is toying with the idea of rotating you both for monitor duty. Maybe not a month but maybe every week or two?"

"Then he'll have a joint protest on his hands I reckon," said John. "From me and Alan."

The three brothers laughed.

Brains then cleared his throat. "G-Gentlemen. Forgive me for interrupting, but I think I've located the problem with the mechanism. Could I t-trouble you all for your assistance?"

"Sorry, Brains," said John as he led Alan and Scott over towards where Brains was working.

Just then EOS's camera-pod came round. "Hello, John," she said. "Glad to see you back. You're just in time as well."

"Good to be back, EOS," said John. "But what do you mean by that?"

"I've just picked up an emergency beacon," said EOS. "It's one of ours."

"Ours?!" repeated Scott. "Who is it?"

"Parker," said EOS.

The brothers and Brains exchanged puzzled looks.

"Parker?" said John. "Do you have his location?" He hurried off towards the main control room.

Scott turned to Brains. "Sorry, Brains, this might have to wait a minute or two."

"Of c-course," said Brains. "I'll m-manage for the moment."

"I'll give you a hand, Brains," said Alan.

Scott left Alan and Brains to work on the elevator and joined John in the control room where he was looking at the holographic globe. "Do you have anything?"

"Yes, the signal is coming from a remote region of the Scottish Highlands," said John, showing the location on the globe.

"Have you tried to contact him or Lady Penelope?" asked Scott. "If they're in danger then we need to act fast."

"This is the same kind of distress beacon Gordon activated after Thunderbird 4 was crushed by the Chaos Crew," said John. "My guess is Parker's in a situation where he is either unconscious or is sending a subtle call for assistance."

"And Lady Penelope?" asked Scott.

"She's not with him," said EOS.

Both brothers looked at her, then at each other, then back at her. "Come again?" said Scott.

"I've already taken the liberty of checking the locator beacon of Lady Creighton-Ward," said EOS. "She is still at her home in England."

"This doesn't make sense," said Scott. "Why would Parker go somewhere without Lady Penelope? Is he still not cleared by whoever that person who's been looking after him?"

"There's something very fishy going on here," agreed John. "I'll alert Dad."

Jeff was equally confused when John told him of the situation. "Parker out in the middle of nowhere all by himself?" he said. "That doesn't sound right. Maybe he has been cleared?"

"Maybe, but I'd have thought Lady Penelope would have told us that, Dad?" said John.

Jeff scratched his chin. "Maybe. I'll give Penny a call and see what she says. She needs to be informed of this anyway."

"Parker wouldn't have set off the beacon without a reason, Dad," said Scott. "As soon as Brains has the elevator fixed, I'll come down and launch Thunderbird 1."

"Brains can't be rushed to fix the elevator, Scott," said Jeff. "We can't risk it carrying anyone until it's been fully tested." He gave a grunt of annoyance. "Pity Virgil and Gordon are already preoccupied with a rescue in China otherwise-"

"What's going on?" Kayo had suddenly entered the lounge having only caught the tail end of what was being discussed. "Is someone in trouble?"

"Parker's activated his emergency beacon," explained John. "He's in a remote area of the Scottish Highlands."

"Send me the location once I'm airborne, John," said Kayo. "If he's in danger, I'll find him and Lady Penelope."

"Lady Penelope isn't with him," cut in Scott. "That's what makes this situation all the more strange."

"That is odd," agreed Kayo as she began to leave. "Whatever the situation, I'll find him."

Kayo hurried to the changing rooms and got into her uniform before boarding Thunderbird Shadow. Once it had moved into position, the cliff that concealed its launcher swivelled around until it was outside. Then the yellow turntable it was mounted on swivelled around so that it was pointing upwards towards the sky.

5! 4! 3! 2! 1!

The twin engines fired as the clamp was released. Thunderbird Shadow dropped away and spun itself round to an upright position before racing away from Tracy Island.

"Thunderbird Shadow is GO!"

Having completed his 'call of nature' as he'd put it, Parker returned to the side of the loch where Fiona had finished building the small fire that they hoped might get spotted if any aircraft were to fly overhead. She then began to rummage through the pockets of her jacket. "Damn, I've lost my lighter!" she complained.

"H'Allow me," said Parker. He took two sticks and rubbed them together until they caught light. Then he placed them on the pieces of wood that Fiona had set up until the flame was burning nicely.

"Two sticks?" said Fiona. "I can't believe you did that."

"Well I wasn't in the h'Army for nothing," replied Parker. "Me and my buddies always said survival of the fittest will always prevail."

Fiona was impressed. She was about to ask him more about his Army days but Parker cut her off.

"Wait h'a moment. Do you 'ear that?"

Fiona listened. Faint, but very slowly getting louder was the hum of a series of jet engines. "What is it?" she asked.

Parker had his eyes peeled, looking around for any sign of the cause. And then they saw it: a dark green Helijet had appeared over the far side of the loch, running horizontally to their position.

At once Fiona began to wave and shout. "HEY! HEY! WE'RE OVER HERE!"

The Helijet turned almost immediately and began to head towards them, gradually getting lower as it did so. This immediately began to make the already suspicious Parker feel more tense. "Stop waving!" he ordered.

Fiona stopped waving her arms and stared at him. "What?"

"Something's not right," Parker continued. "I don't like it."

"Don't like it?!" repeated Fiona, exasperated. "Why don't you like it? We're being rescued!"

Parker looked at his watch again. "It's been less than thirty minutes since we landed in the drink," he said. "There's no way h'anyone could 'ave found us this quickly."

They watched anxiously as the Helijet drew closer and closer. It was now very low with the downdraft from its jets disrupting the surface of the loch. Then two flaps began to open out at the sides to reveal a pair of missile launchers.

Fiona's eyes widened in horror. "What are they doing?!" she gasped.

"MOVE!" bellowed Parker, grabbing her hand and yanking her towards the trees, just as a missile was launched from the Helijet. It hit the ground less than fifty metres away and exploded, shaking the ground and sending dirt and debris flying into the air in all directions. Parker and Fiona got a showing of dirt but otherwise remained unharmed as they disappeared into the trees.

The Helijet moved in to land on an open flat area of the ground close to where Parker had lit the fire. Eight men, all dressed in combat gear and brandishing old machine-guns as well as belts with grenades and other small boxes of equipment disembarked from its passenger bay in the middle before it lifted off again. All had balaclavas over their faces concealing their faces and they were swiftly on the move, running into the trees after their prey.

The one in front led the others into a clearing about one-hundred yards inside the edge of the woods from the edge of the loch whilst the Helijet took to the air once more.

Parker and Fiona had managed to conceal themselves on a high level of ground amongst some bushes. They could see the mysterious group of armed men whereas they couldn't see them.

"Who are these people?" Fiona whispered.

"I 'ave no h'idea, Miss," Parker whispered back. "But if h'I gets a chance…"

Before Fiona could ask what he meant, they heard the leader of the group barking orders, telling the men to disperse.

"YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO! FIND THEM, AND BRING THEM TO US ALIVE! ESPECIALLY OLD NOSEY!"

"Nosey?" asked Fiona. "Who's Nosey?"

But Parker had turned pale. The voice sounded familiar, but he was really praying that he was hearing it wrong.

Most of the men headed off in different directions. Two groups of two went off and two more were just setting off leaving the leader by himself. "Wait!" the leader called to the last two. "Where the hell's Latrine?"

"Where do you think, Gomez?" answered one of the others. "Can't go five minutes without needing to go again."

Parker gulped loudly. His fears were realised. "It's THEM!" he whispered.

"Who?"

"My old Army buddies…The Shiners!" Parker said. "It's me they're h'after."

Fiona was confused. "But why?" she asked.

"I'll tell you when we get out of 'ere," said Parker. "For the moment, stay 'ere and keep quiet."

Fiona opened her mouth to protest, but in the blink of an eye, Parker had vanished. Scared for her life, she kept low and as silent as possible despite her heart pounding against her chest.

Parker snuck his way back through the trees, keeping as low to the ground as possible. Lucky for him, the pairs of armed men looking for him were searching in different areas so he was able to get back to the edge of the loch without any problems. He had to check above for he could still hear the humming of the Helijet but it wasn't visible to him. He hoped that was a good thing.

Reaching the edge of the woods, he peered out onto the shoreline of the loch. The fire he'd lit had been extinguished, but not far from where it had been was a lone figure squatting down having been doing his business. Parker knew straight away from the man's lack of built-up body that it was someone he knew.

The man stood up and was just about to do up his trousers when a polite cough made him look up. "'Ello, Latrine," said Parker.

The man gasped, but before he could say anything, Parker knocked him out with a single punch. The man fell over, landing right in the hole he'd dug to go in. Parker moved quickly, seizing the man's belt of grenades and his machine-gun. He then quickly pulled off the balaclava and saw a white-haired and bearded man. It was indeed the member of The Shiners that was nicknamed 'Latrine'. He then heard the hum of the Helijet getting louder and quickly rushed back into the trees to get out of sight.

He'd barely gotten out of sight before he heard someone shout "LATRINE!" nearby. One of the others had come back to check on him. Parker rushed off as fast as he could, not daring to look back.

Patrick and Patricia hadn't seen Penelope for several hours. Ever since the heated argument, Patrick had been in deep regret and wanted to apologise for it. But after checking Penelope's room, they found she was not there. A check of the house and grounds eventually saw Patricia be the one to locate her. Penelope was in the garden, taking out her frustrations on a bush with a set of shears. "There you are," she said. "What are you doing?"

"Making a mess!" said Penelope in an agitated voice. "RAAAH!" she threw the shears away in anger. Then she fell to her knees.

Patricia was very worried. She'd never seen her daughter like this before. She hurried over to comfort her. "What's wrong, sweetheart?" she asked.

Penelope was shedding tears. "I just…want things to go back to the way they were," she said, wiping them away. "I want that woman gone!"

"She will be gone, love," said Patricia. "Once she and Parker are back, we'll do everything we can to prove that Parker's fully recovered."

Penelope took some deep breaths. "I don't know, Mum. But I've got a feeling that I can't shake. I have a feeling that something is wrong."

Just then, one of the mansion staff members came running out. "Lady Creighton-Ward?"

Patricia turned. "What is it, Leon?"

"His Lordship is asking for you both to see him. It's urgent."

Patricia and Penelope looked at each other, and then hurried inside.

The Creighton-Ward ladies found Patrick in the Drawing Room talking with Jeff. "Have you any idea what's happened?"

"None at all, Pat," answered Jeff. "I was hoping you could tell me something."

"What's going on?" asked Penelope.

"Penny!" said Jeff. "Do you know why Parker's in Scotland?"

"Scotland?" repeated Penelope. "He's supposed to be heading to the Orkneys."

"For what reason?"

"Well…Miss Campbell wants him to have a few weeks of relaxation," said Penelope. "Then she says she can finally declare him as fully fit. It's complete nonsense, Jeff. There's nothing wrong with him. But…what is this all about?"

"Parker's activated his emergency beacon, Penny," explained Jeff. "He's in a remote region of the Scottish Highlands. Kayo's already on her way there. Do you think you could back her up?"

Penelope nodded eagerly. "Of course," she said. "Send me his location and I'll take FAB1 up there!"

"F-A-B."

Penelope began to seethe with anger as Jeff's hologram disappeared. "I knew something was going to happen!"

"You can't have known that," said Patrick.

Penelope turned. "Father…just so you know…I AM sorry for yelling at you earlier. But I had a bad feeling straight from the off. I should not have taken my anger out on either of you. Now I'm going to make it right. I'm going to get Parker and bring him home!"

Penelope made her way to the garage and climbed into FAB1. Several lessons by Parker had taught her to drive the car, not quite as good as he could but enough to make her be able to handle the car by herself. She wasn't entirely alone either. Having learned the tricky terrain she'd be going to, she decided to bring Potts with her. Potts was eager. He'd barely left the estate since she'd brought him home.

Driving out of the garage, Penelope began to head down the driveway whilst Patrick and Patricia watched anxiously from the front steps. "Hold tight, Potts," said Penelope as she activated the flight-mode. The wings extended and FAB1 took to the air before looping around and heading North over the estate and what remained of the village of Creighton, still decimated following the Rock Snake attack. "FAB1 is GO!"

The other pairs of men who'd gone searching the woods had returned to Gomez. "Nothing," said one whose name was Vernon.

"They must be further away," said another called Maddox.

"We'll find them, Fred," said Gomez.

Then one of the others, named Hudson, came sprinting up to them, panicked and out of breath. "LATRINE!" he cried.

"What about him?" asked Gomez.

"HE'S BEEN TAKEN OUT!"

The others looked at each other.

"Parker…" growled Gomez, holding up his weapon and peering around where they were. "Then he's not as far away as we might think. Spread out! Sweep the area! They can't be far away."

Parker meanwhile had found Fiona, who was alarmed to see he now had weapons. "What are those for?" she asked.

"For just h'in case," Parker answered. "Now come on, let's move."

Thunderbird Shadow was making its way across the Atlantic Ocean towards the United Kingdom. Kayo called up Thunderbird 5 for an update. "Any new developments, John?" she asked.

"Actually yes," John replied. "And it looks a good thing that it's just you and Lady Penelope that are on this mission. Stealth could be key."

"How do you mean?"

John showed her a holographic map of the woods where Parker's signal was coming from. "See for yourself."

Kayo looked at the image with confusion. "So…he's not alone?"

"No. There's one person with him," said John. "I'm going to presume that's Miss Campbell, his carer. As for the others, no idea. But there's a Helijet flying around the area and…these guys appear to be armed."

"You mean he's ended up in a restricted area controlled by the military?" asked Kayo.

"No, I've checked. That area has no Army or GDF ties to it. It's just open country."

"Then either Parker and Miss Campbell have fallen victims of an illegal hunt," Kayo theorised. "Or…"

"These people could well be after them," said John. "Parker has made quite a lot of enemies over the years."

"Yeah…like those two who stole FAB1 from him and Lady Penelope," said Kayo. "Does she know about this?"

"I'm about to tell her now," said John. "I've alerted you first to ensure you catch up with her. Parker means a lot to her. We don't want her to go in without a plan."

"F-A-B," said Kayo. "I'm at maximum speed now. I should catch up with FAB1 before she gets too close to the area."

"F-A-B," finished John as he signed off.

Parker and Fiona had made it further into the woods, but they knew that it would only be a matter of time before either one of The Shiners caught sight of them or the Helijet did. Parker knew he had to do something to try and throw them off. He used his survivalist skills to set up a few traps whilst Fiona helped build a makeshift shelter that would conceal her inside.

"You stay 'ere," he told her.

"But if they find you-"

"I've taken them down before," said Parker with confidence. "They think they've got the h'upper 'and. I'm about to prove them wrong. Now stay quiet." He then disappeared, leaving Fiona alone and afraid.

Gomez and Fred led their comrades through the trees. Spreading out to find Parker and the woman they'd seen had so far yielded no results. This was getting Vernon down. "Gah, I'm too old for this crap," he complained. "I thought you said this was gonna be easy, Gomez?"

"It was supposed to be," growled Gomez. "I was told that Parker was severely ill and would make for an easy target. Guessing I was given false intel."

"Parker's no easy target, Vernon," added Fred. "He's far more resourceful than you all give him credit for."

"I'm gonna kill him for taking Latrine out," fumed Hudson. "Nobody takes down my best friend!"

"We're not killing him, Hudson!" barked Gomez. "At least not yet. He needs to suffer for turning his back on all of us."

"Well when it is time, I want to be the one to kill him," said Hudson angrily.

Carlson, the biggest of the group, then noticed something on the ground. "Hey, look. Tracks!" he said.

Gomez came to look. "Good, these are fresh," he said. "They have to be close-by."

Carlson was the group's best tracker. He sniffed the air. "I smell his fear," he said gleefully as he moved forwards through some brush. "Nosey Parker…your time is-" He broke off as he felt something go snap by his legs. He looked down but saw nothing. He then looked up just in time to see the tree log suspended from two pieces of mesh swinging towards him. "AAAARGH!"

The tree log hit him with such great force that it sent him flying backwards, winded before colliding with another tree. He then fell to the floor, knocked completely out cold.

"CARL!" yelled Hudson as the others ran over.

Maddox, the group's medic, checked on him. "He's alive," he said. "But he's not gonna be of any use to us now, Vic."

Gomez growled furiously. "Confound you, Parker!" he spat. "FIND HIM!"

"And watch your steps!" added Fred.

The men moved around, more cautiously and some with nervousness in their veins.

Gomez radioed the Helijet. "This is taking too long," he said. "Can you use your infrared scanner to find them?"

"Copy that," answered the Helijet pilot.

"You know that would have been so much easier if you'd told them to do that from the start," growled Hudson.

"Shut up or I'll shut you up," snapped Vernon.

"CUT IT OUT!" boomed Gomez. "The Helijet will find them!"

The group split up with Fred, Vernon and Maddox going one way and Gomez and Hudson the other. With Carlson down, Vernon had taken hold of what they called The Big Gun. It was a combined machine-gun and grenade launcher. A deadly weapon in the right hands let alone the wrong ones.

Fred made his way through some bushes first. Maddox followed him. Vernon was about to when Parker suddenly appeared out of nowhere and tackled him to the ground. Vernon tried to call out but Parker silenced him with a punch. He then picked up The Big Gun and disappeared again.

Maddox had heard the commotion and along with Fred, rushed back to check. "Oh, God, another one!" exclaimed Maddox. He began to check on Vernon whilst Fred aimed his weapon, pointing it in all directions for any sign of Parker.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Fred said. "OOF!"

Parker had leapt out of nowhere again, catching Fred off-guard. He dropped his weapon and tumbled down a small slope. He shook his head to regain his senses before looking up to see Parker standing over. "Nosey Parker…"

"Light-Fingered Fred…"

"Hey, er, look…sorry about this," Fred said. "This was Gomez's idea, not mine."

"I can tell," Parker replied. "Regrouping The Shiners, just to get your smelly little revenge h'on me."

"Well, you did turn your back on us," said Fred. "I was all for letting bygones be bygones. Gomez and the others thought…"

Parker sensed someone was behind him. He swung his left arm back, striking someone in the face. He turned just in time to see Maddox fall to the floor.

"Argh!" groaned Maddox in pain. "My nose! YOU'VE BROKEN MY NOSE, PARKER!"

"Good," Parker replied. "I'm sure you fix yourself h'up."

Fred used the distraction to scramble for his gun, but by the time he'd raised it, Parker had disappeared again. Fred cursed, scrambled to his feet and ran up the slope to where Maddox was whimpering. "God sakes, man, pull yourself together!" he barked. He then ran through the brush to find a recovering Vernon. "You okay, Vern?"

"Yeah…" answered Vernon. "Which is more than Parker's gonna be when…AAH!" he cried. "THE GUN! WHERE'S THE BIG GUN?!"

Fred's blood ran cold. "Oh, no…" He grabbed his radio. "Gomez, it's Fred!"

"Shut up, Fred!" Gomez snapped. "You'll give us away!"

"Nosey ambushed us and stole The Big Gun!"

Now it was Gomez's turn to curse and Hudson was getting more enraged. But before he could rant, Gomez spoke again. "Get that gun back, Fred. Whatever it takes!"

The two men couldn't have known that concealed in the brush less then five metres away from where they were was where Parker had hidden Fiona. She could hear the two men and was shivering with terror. She could feel her heart racing faster. She hoped they couldn't hear her heavy breathing. But then… "ATCHOO!"

Gomez and Hudson stopped dead and looked around.

"Did you hear that?" Hudson asked.

"Yes…I did," Gomez replied.

Both men looked around, but couldn't see anyone.

"He's trying to distract us," hissed Hudson.

"No…my friend," said Gomez. "I've heard Parker sneeze before. That wasn't him. It sounded…female to me."

Hearing those words made Fiona panic. She turned around, pushed aside part of the shelter and ran out, hoping they wouldn't see her.

"FREEZE!"

Fiona continued to run.

BANG!

Fiona screamed at the gunshot and threw up her hands.

"Move and I'll blow your head off!" snarled Hudson.

"Calm yourself, boy," said Gomez, aiming his own gun at Fiona's back less threateningly. "Turn around, Lady Creighton-Ward. Your manservant ain't gonna save you this time."

Quivering, Fiona turned around so her face was visible to her captors.

Hudson stared. "Who the hell is she?" he asked.

Gomez stared too. "Well…I'll be!" A vicious smirk crossed his face. "This just got a whole lot more interesting!"